1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed generally to a method and apparatus for controlling a grill cooking temperature with higher accuracy and over a greater grill area.
2. Related Art
The majority of gas grills typically have two to six main burners. Each of these burners is controlled by a single valve, which controls the gas flow to a particular burner in a particular grill area. The remaining burners are also each controlled by a valve. If a user of the grill wants high heat over the entire grill area, this system is sufficient to provide high heat when the valves are all turned completely on and all the main burners are operated at the same time. Similarly, when the user of the grill wants a medium heat setting over the entire grill area, with the existing system all the valves are turned to their lowest setting, thus providing medium heat.
However, if the user wants to more reliably control the heat, control the heat to a greater degree, and/or have a more even or uniform heat, then the typical grill is not able to provide such burner control over an entire grill area. In this regard, the relationship between the gas flow input of the burners, the burner ports, and/or the amount of primary air intake, limit the range of control to the point that the user cannot have very high heat for searing and very low heat for slow cooking, such as smoking, over the entire grill area.
For example, if the user wants lower heat for very slow cooking in a conventional grill, then the user may turn on one or two burners at one end of the grill area, and place the meat or other food to be cooked at the other end of the grill area. This very low heat cooking process forms a very limited capacity in that the cooking area is greatly reduced (by half) because the heated end of the cooking area cannot be utilized for cooking because it is too hot. Moreover, the heat will also not be uniform in that food will be spaced at a varying distance from the heated grill area.
Accordingly, there is a need for a grill that can cook both at low temperature and high temperature with greater accuracy over the entire grill area.